The Issue
The issue of conflict of interest has raised its ugly head in Ghana football again with Ghana’s executive council member James Kwesi Appiah who also serves as the head coach of the Sudan Men’s National team (the Falcons of Jediane) at the centre of the controversy. A letter from CAF has been directed to him to take immediate action to resolve the conflict of interest situation he finds himself.
Kwesi Appiah was elected to the GFA Executive Council during the 2023 GFA elections on the ticket of the Ghana premier league clubs with the likes of Fredrick Acheampong, Randy Abbey and Oduro Sarfo. Sudan Football Federation then appointed Kwesi Appiah as their head coach few months after his election to the executive council. Sudan is drawn into the same group with Ghana for the qualifiers of the 2025 African cup of nations and this is where the conflict of interest comes in.
CAF Status and FIFA code of ethics
The CAF Status has little to say about conflict of interest issues so let’s quickly refer to what the FIFA Code of Ethics say about conflict of interest.
Section 20 (1) of the 2023 Edition of the Code of Ethics of FIFA reads:
20. Conflicts of interest
1. Persons bound by this Code shall not perform their duties (in particular, preparing or participating in the taking of a decision) in situations in which an existing or potential conflict of interest might affect such performance. A conflict of interest arises if a person bound by this Code has, or appears to have, secondary interests that could influence their ability to perform their duties with integrity in an independent and purposeful manner. Secondary interests include, but are not limited to, gaining any possible advantage for the persons bound by this Code themselves or related parties as defined in this Code.
2. Before being elected, appointed or employed, persons bound by this Code shall disclose any relations and interests that could lead to situations of conflicts of interest in the context of their prospective activities.
3. Persons bound by this Code shall not perform their duties (in particular preparing, or participating in, the taking of a decision) in situations in which there is a danger that a conflict of interest might affect such performance. Any such conflict shall be immediately disclosed and notified to the organisation for which the person bound by this Code performs their duties.
4. Violation of this article shall be sanctioned with an appropriate fine of at least CHF 10,000 as well as a ban on taking part in any football-related activity for a maximum of two years. In serious cases and/or in the case of repetition, a ban on taking part in any football-related activity may be pronounced for a maximum of five years.
My Take
Conflicts of interest are a clash that most often occurs between requirements and interests. Various types of conflicts of interest can occur because of the nature of relationships versus rules of organizations or federal and state laws. People can easily become biased (have an unfair preference) because of things like friendship, or flattery, or they may be influenced to make a decision because of the potential to gain power, prestige, or money. Conflicts can occur when an individual makes or influences a decision and does so for some personal gain that may be unfair, unethical, or even illegal. The important part is what you do in each of those situations.
So, in the case of James Kwesi Appiah, at the time of his election to the GFA executive council there was no potential conflict of interest until his appointment for the Sudan job. This led to professional conflicts of interest, that is where his professional obligations as the executive council member of GFA clash with another interests which is his role as the head coach of Sudan should Ghana meet Sudan at the men’s senior football.
What is required of him per the FIFA code of ethics is to make disclosures to both football federations of the potential conflicts of interest and take steps to manage the potential conflicts of interest. The section 20 (2) of the FIFA code of ethics 2023 edition clearly spells out that all Kwesi Appiah needed to do at the time of this appointment with Sudan was to make disclosures to GFA that he is taking up such a role which has the propensity to lead to conflicts of interest in the future. Therefore, when such perceived conflicts of interest arise Kwesi needs not to take part of discussions involving Sudan at the executive council meeting by recusing himself as a standard professional practice and resumes his duty at the executive council when the discussion involving Sudan is over.
There have been series of calls pressurizing James Kwesi Appiah to resign from the executive council because of this conflict of interest although it is not grounded in any code of ethics at the FIFA nor CAF level.
If Kwesi Appiah is forced to resign or forcefully removed from the executive council, then it will set a bad precedentfor GFA as every person who finds him or herself in any potential conflict of interest situation will decide not to make voluntary disclosures which will go in the long run to hurt the organization. It is like suggesting that a judge should resign from the bench just because his son has been called to the bar or to further extend it, the son is representing a client at his father’s court. All that the judge will do is to recuse himself from the case and resumes duty after the case is done. Afterall, it is not only Sudan related issues that will be discussed at the executive council for the entire four-year tenure of this executive council for Kwesi Appiah to resign. There will be many other issues that would be discussed that his knowledge and experience will come in handy.
GFA needs to take steps to manage potential conflicts of interest as these are inevitable in our daily works. One way of doing that is to develop a conflict of interest policy to guide the association going into the future.
The conflict of interest policy should clearly establish procedures:
• to obtain written agreement from individuals such as executive council members, staff and volunteers to abide by the policy;
• to prevent possible conflict of interest situations (e.g. advising executive council members, employees and volunteers on how to avoid being placed in a situation of perceived obligation or indebtedness – this should include procedures for dealing with gifts and hospitality);
• for disclosure by executive council members, employees and volunteers of conflicts of interest (actual, potential or perceived), and recording of such disclosure;
• for dealing with conflict of interest situations that have been disclosed or raised, to ensure that the capacity to influence related decisions is eliminated. This should include procedures for deciding the extent to which the individual needs to remove or recuse himself from decision-making on issues related to the possible conflict of interest situation, and procedures to officially record the means whereby a conflict of interest was dealt with;
• to identify a mechanism or person to deal with real conflicts of interest that are discovered “after the fact”;
• for maintaining the confidentiality of those involved in a decision-making process when the outcome is likely to affect someone they know or to have repercussions for those who vote in a particular way (so that fear of repercussions does not influence decision-makers);
• for resolving disputes, in the event that an individual does not agree with the perception that he or she is in a conflict of interest situation.
In our work lives, we also have interests that could influence the way we do our jobs and the decisions we make. Even if we never act on them, there may be an appearance that a conflict of interest has influenced our decisions.
Owuraku Nsiah
(Chartered Accountant / Chartered Tax Practitioner)
Sikka FM, Kumasi
